[PRP] Guards! (Shira/Tibuka)

[PhiferWolf]

After having to talk to Mafa, and Yakuti leaving with his new 'slave' to see her, Shira had a lot of time on her paws and what better than to patrol? The tawny hyena got to her feet exiting Yakuti's den, mindful of the traps that littered around it, and moved toward the many forks of the Elephant Graveyard. Shira had been here for a week or two, maybe even more. She had not remembered to count the moons the nights before and had forgotten, her mind was set on a few things; Mafa, the Pack, and Yakuti. Those three were the only things that were important to her and deserved her time and effort. Mafa was a good female, a decent female, a good rival to compete with. The pack was something she was a part of and it was sort of like a family, if only she could ignore the males of it. Then there was Yakuti, he had been on her mind since he had welcomed her here. She had spent nights in his den, days patrolling the graveyard, and then there was that time in the skull. She felt a bit horrid about what she told him, but she got over it quickly. Now she felt horrid for what Yakuti must be going through. Oh well...

Her paws moved under her, crunching bones, pressing against the earth. Even with these recent events, she had not deterred too far from her norm. Her head was high, her chest was out, her stature and posture was at their peek. She moved about with such power to signal that no one in their right minds out dare mess with her. She may be a guard, but she is still a female. She was a fair fighter, if there was anything she learned, numbers did not matter in a fight.

She had been a loner for months, almost years, she did not need any male now and possibly ever. What she told Mafa back there, it was a white lie. She could not possibly love that boy. She must have been foolish "Find someone else better" Hah! She was the best! There was no one better, she was simply too high for him. Oh well, he'll have to settle for someone else then. She was a loner.  

[wooga Paes]

Not that he wasn't of a high rank, or not proud of it, but Tibuka however, walked with his shoulders hunched now. He couldn't care for making an appearence right now. He had to think.

He had just met with Mafa, like Shira, but on his mind was something perhaps more troubling than 'love', though it did involve it. Winged lions, and training. He didn't know what was so great about training, instinct should do it, but still, Mafa seemed to want it. But the worst side was, though the pack was much stronger now, with so many additions he couldn't even remember, the lions were growing stronger too.

He had done good, fought off the -queen-, he hadn't won against to punyjuveniles, but he had saved a hyena from death(In his mind, anyways), ad that lioness would never ever think about bothering the graveyard, nor would that pathetic cheetah, wich at first had seemed like a oddly scrawny lion.

But now, wings, powers, whatever were a problem. And as good as hyenas were, they couldn't take down too many larger lions. This was a problem..

But then, he heard the crunch of bones, and his head shot up. Shira was pretty visible with her yellow standing out a bit from to bones and gray. Yes, he remembered the female. His ears twiched foreward in acknoledgement, but he didn't really feel the need to say anything.  

[PhiferWolf]

Shira kept her eyes moving from left to right, into holes and between bones. Those mangy lions can hide anywhere and from what she had once heard from the 'head guard', Tibuka, there were those of wings. She smirked, stupid. But for the hell of it, she took a glance to the sky and back to the ground after spotting nothing. She felt so weak as of late, but she could not show that no, then that would allow males come for her just like before. Damn them, those power hungry males.

"Bastards...."

She growled to herself as she dropped her head a bit, her fur hanging over her head. She instinctively turned as the path came under her paws, there was no need to look up.

Yakuti.....

Suddenly she hit something hard, but at the same time soft. It was not a skull obviously due to no hollow noise and it was slightly soft. She let out a growl and snarled out,

"Watch where you are going!"

The female's head picked up, half her face covered with fur and her lips pulled back into a strong growl.  

[wooga Paes]

She was blind, she hadn't seemed blind, but why was she just.. walking towards him? To caught up in his mental discussion 'is she blind or not', Tibuka didn't move away from the colission and then she just bumped into his chest while looking down.

"What the-- " He jumped back, and crouched instinctively when he heard some rumble, ears down. "Watch where I'm going?! " He growled, but then shook it off. No, better not get into meaningless discussions with the 'newbie'. Of course, he knew how strong Shira was just by looknig at her, so he wouldn't act as if she were weak.

But at the meeting, he had noticed how strong headed this female was, and not wanting to waste time in an argument, huffed. "Sorry. " Damn, he hated saying that. "Things on my mind. " He wrinkled his nose. He hated feeling sorry or anything, but he rather just walk off right now.  

[PhiferWolf]

"Don't say that."

She huffed at him.

"No male should say, "Sorry", maybe Forgive me, or I apologize, but never sorry. As much as I hate to say it, it makes you males seem too inferior."

Sometimes one would wonder how this female thinks. Shira watched the other hyena closely as he spoke of that he had things on his mind. She could understand that, she too had her own problems too. Shira sat down and narrowed at him.

"Sit down, Tibuka, we should talk."

She spoke. She just hoped she did not have to kick herself later for this but he seemed trouble and he was part of this pack. Even as head guard, she would not refer to him as such. He was just like every other hyena around here to her and will be treated as such. So far, Tibuka showed her no harm and she would try to show no harm back. But if he didn't...well, he will be very sore if his life was still living after.

"What are these "things" on your mind, Tibuka?"

The female's voice strong and powerful, yet stern.  

[wooga Paes]

"Apologies are hollow, but they usually work. " He snorted, but didn't say anything otherwise. He sat down even before she told him to, his eyes looked in the females direction, but didn't seem to be really looking at her, view concentrated on nothing.

He snapped into himself when she spoke again, cyan eyesfinally concentrationg on the females blue ones. This was none of her business, he wanted to say, but technically, it was.

"The lions. " He growled. "I don't fear them, but I know trouble when I smell it. " He said quietly. "Mafa probably knows it too, we were just talking about it. " They had come up with pretty nice plans, but not everything was solved.

"They're getting stronger, got over losing their queen. Winged lions, gods, whatever they're called, too. I've seen one, Mafa has too. But its not the same Yakuti's seen. " That had been quite a while ago, though. He shifted to a more comfortable position, looking at the scars he still showed from fighting Ishara. She had been quite pathetic, though.
 

[PhiferWolf]

"They are not fit to be called gods, they are nature's rejections. Pfft, winged lions. I do not doubt they are real or if they are fiction, they are just lions with wings, if you can take down a lion and a bird, then you can this thing. Our pack can handle this situation and we will take out these intruders on our lands. Besides, these nature's rejects don't seem all that special to me."

She mocked. As she saw it, these gods were just prey, two for one deal really. Wings to chew on, feathers to eat, and teh meat could be given off if not eaten. Then again, was there really any animal that would eat a lion?

"Tibuka, lions get stronger, you know we do as well. It is natural for hyenas to be on top. Lion may get stronger, but we will always be stronger. Surely, one such as yourself should know that already. Those scars did not come from scraping bones, you have fought and you know how to since you are still around. You should not worry about the lions. To us, they are mere playthings for us to beat around if we so chose."

Shira ignored the comment about Yakuti seeing one. He had not told her that before....he promised...oh well, she will just worm it out of him whenever this whole thing blows over and when it does, she and he will be on better terms...hopefully.

"Don't tell me that was what was bother you."  

[wooga Paes]

"I know that we're stronger, " He said, not trying to get into much of an argument. "Heck, the pack is much stronger than it used to be, but these winged lions are different, they're not just that simple. " He wished it was. Tibuka hated eing pesimistic, but he had to face the fact, these winged lions were more of a problem then a whole pride could be.

"Don't you remember? Yakuti said that he bit it, but the bitten place grew back. When me and Mafa saw the blue one, he made wings out of thin air. " He snorted. He wouldn't foret the god of war.

"No bird does this, neither does any normal lion. "He said quietly. "And definately, hyena's don't either. " He was repeating what he had talked to Mafa about, it felt weird, but nw, when she wasn't around, he couldn't help but feel a bit less optimistic about his strategy. "Lions are pathetic, and can be weakened without even being touched. But these are new. "

His ears folded back, and instead of looking at Shira, he looked above her, quietly remembering the blue god fly off. "I'm quite sure you, I, Mafa and others are ready, but too many are not. Yakuti is a fine young hyena, but he has much to learn. Mabozi is a complete failure. " He sighed, the pack needed to grow. It needed to get stronger, but there wasn't so much he could do, he was a guard, not a teacher.

"Anyways, Mafa was talking about training. " He said, blinking in contempt. "You don't need it, of course. Thats the other thing I have to think about. "  

[PhiferWolf]

"I have already taken Yakuti under my wing for training, Tibuka, you need not worry about him. With his interspe-....with my training, he will be the best he could be."

Luckily, she caught herself before saying 'interspecies', no one needed to know about yakuti's past and it was not her place to tell it to another. But it made her chuckle when she said 'under my wing' seeing as their subject involved such. No one needed to know the past, the future and the present were what mattered.

"Either way, we can handle them. I am sure of it. These nature's rejects will fall under the Graveyard's power. This is our territory, they should have just stayed in the Pride Lands with the rest of their pansy kind."

With that final comment on them, she smirked.

"Mabozi is Mafa's boy, right? Should give the fool a beating and a while you are it put some sense into that air in his head. Maybe if he was smart, he would be able to become heir, then again that is already a path undecided for him. He is a lost cause, with mafa's permission, perhaps you can dump him."  

[wooga Paes]

His ears perked questioning at what she caught herself from saying. He could try and guess this, but decided not to question, none of his business.

"He decided not to press the stuff about winged lions further, but about Mabozi, he half chuckled. "If beating it into him worked, I would. " He snorted. "But then he'd be afraid of lions and hyenas. " He rolled his eyes. "And about dumpign him, we can't. If he ever realises what he should do with lions, his size is good. He is the largest pup of the litter-- " He stopped himself. "The only one that lived too. "  

[PhiferWolf]

"I see, I guess that is what Mafa meant....so we will need Mabozi no matter the usefulness of him. I suppose if he will be useful, or is to be, he'd need a lot of training...."

With a soft sigh she turned her head away from him. She could not believe she was going to ask him this, hell she could not believe this entire day. A fight with Yakuti, a fight with some female named Zoma, a very secretive talk with mafa and now this.

"I could offer my aid in your training him, Tibuka."

There she said it now to wait for the dominating blow that she was expecting Tibuka to give her. Offering help? If she was as strong as she said, she would have taken Mabozi from Tibuka and trained him herself. Why didn't that cross her mind first? Too late to take it back.  

[wooga Paes]

"Mafa would like that so much. " He snorted, ears back. As much as he wanted to dump the burden on someone else, he knew he couldn't.

"She sort of dumped him on me after I fought off the cruddy lion's queen. " He rolled his eyes. "As much as a hate it, I have to do it. Rasuli will help, if he still wants to. You can take him around too, but he's still my burden, along with that stupid wild dog. " Mafa sure liked dumping puppies onto him, didn't she? Next thing you know, she'd be asking him to have some.  

[PhiferWolf]

"I will take him after Yakuti has been trained. He will learn to fight and hunt first and then he and I will focus on the brat. Don't worry, he will be ready for this invasion.

You know, Tibuka, if she keeps wanting a bigger pack, and dumping the scum slave and her own son on you, next thing we know she would be expecting us to mate to bear pups for her! Hah! Like I'd lift my tail for you, there are much more suitable males for me. Surely there is a female around for you to eye."

She mocked, smirking contently. She was growing a bit more comfortable around Tibuka at the least. Even if making fun of him allowed it. Yakuti may take time to train and even then, Mabozi will be a much more difficult challenge if Mafa needed him to be trained by Tibuka. Shira thought, four hyenas have been offered to trained, granted Yakuti will help.  

[wooga Paes]

The hyena sneered, ears flat. He really, really wanted to give a nice, spicy retort, but he shouldn't pick fights with other members, especially over pointless reasons.

But she could respect Mafa.

"Mafa is no fool, Shira, and don't talk about her like that. " He growled. "Besides, either way, if she wanted any of us to 'mate', she'd likely have you do it with Yakuti, not me. "

He snorted, and looked away, nose wrinkled, but maw closed. What an annoying, loudmouthed female!  

[PhiferWolf]

"Yakuti?....

She murred softly. She came to his side and pulled him around.

"What makes you say that? What makes you think she would want Yakuti and I together? Are you saying I am not good enough for you!?"

She snarled. It was of anger, irritation, and confusion.

"Mafa is head dog here, I understand that, but like her, we are all hyenas. There are few differences between her and us and frankly, the way I see it, she is just like us. She is a hyena, we are hyena. She eats meat, we eat meat. She breathes air, we breath air. Get it? Got it? Good."

She let go of him and turned her head to the side. She was beginning to dislike Mafa a bit. Everyone looked up to her like some sort of immortal things as if she was their savior. In a way...it felt like they were her slaves....and Shira was one of them.

"Know this Tibuka, I am in this pack because I wanted some decent company, I got that. I wanted shelter, I got that. I wanted someone to at least talk to and I have that. But I will not bend under Mada, no, I will defiantly not. I will listen but it is my choice to go by it or not. Just hope she does not give drastic orders that will risk the lives of the pack and you all bluntly follow it. I am still park of this pack, but I am still my own person."